Drilling fluids containing biodegradable organophilic clay

ABSTRACT

Drilling fluids are provided that comprise an organophilic clay treated with a quaternary ammonium surfactant having an amide linkage. The quaternary ammonium surfactant may comprise a compound generally represented by the following formula: 
                         
where M −  is an anion such as a chloride, methyl sulfate, bromide, acetate, or iodide ion; R 1  is an alkyl group such as a saturated hydrocarbon with 10 or more carbons; R 2 , R 3 , and R 4  are the same or different alkyl groups such as a methyl, ethyl, or benzyl group, and x is greater than or equal to 1. The organophilic clay treated in this manner is substantially biodegradable. In embodiments, the drilling fluids comprise the foregoing organophilic clay, an oil-based fluid and a weighting agent. In still more embodiments, the drilling fluids comprise the foregoing organophilic clay, an invert emulsion, an emulsifier, and a weighting agent.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.11/042,560, filed on Jan. 25, 2005 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,521,399 andpublished as U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0166840 onJul. 27, 2006, the entirety of which is incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND

The present invention generally relates to drilling fluids, and moreparticularly to biodegradable drilling fluids comprising organophilicclay treated with a quaternary ammonium surfactant having an amidelinkage.

The following paragraphs contain some discussion, which is illuminatedby the innovations disclosed in this application, and any discussion ofactual or proposed or possible approaches in this Background sectiondoes not imply that those approaches are prior art.

Natural resources such as oil or gas residing in a subterraneanformation can be recovered by drilling wells that penetrate theformation. In particular, a well bore is typically drilled down to theformation while circulating a drilling fluid (also known as a drillingmud) through the well bore. During the drilling process, the drill bitgenerates drill cuttings that consist of small pieces of shale and rock.The drilling fluid carries the drill cuttings in a return flow streamback to the well drilling platform. After terminating the circulation ofthe drilling fluid, a string of pipe, e.g., casing, is run in the wellbore. The drilling fluid is then usually circulated downwardly throughthe interior of the pipe and upwardly through the annulus, which islocated between the exterior of the pipe and the walls of the well bore.Primary cementing is then usually performed whereby a cement slurry ispumped down through the string of pipe and into the annulus between thestring of pipe and the walls of the well bore to allow the cement slurryto set into an impermeable cement column and thereby seal the annulus.Subsequent secondary cementing operations, i.e., cementing operationsoccurring after the primary cementing operation, may also be performed.

Organophilic clays are commonly used in oil-based drilling fluids toincrease viscosity and provide for the suspension of particles, such asdrill cuttings and weighting agents, therein. Organophilic clays aregenerally prepared by reacting a hydrophilic clay with an organiccation, usually a quaternary ammonium salt compound produced from afatty nitrile. Examples of hydrophilic clays include bentonite andhectorite. Native clay surfaces have negatively charged sites andcationic counter-ions such as sodium and calcium cations. Thus, the claymay be treated with a cationic surfactant to displace the cations thatare naturally present at the clay surfaces. The cationic surfactantbecomes tightly held to the surfaces through electrostatic charges. Inthis manner, the hydrophilic nature of the clay is reversed, making itmore soluble in oil. By way of example, bentonite that primarilycontains sodium cations is known as sodium bentonite. Those monovalentsodium cations may be easily displaced from the clay, making a largenumber of anionic sites available.

As mentioned above, quaternary ammonium compounds are commonly used asthe cationic surfactants in preparing the organophilic clays. Quaternaryammonium compounds contain ammonium compounds in which one or more ofthe hydrogen atoms attached to the nitrogen are substituted by organicradicals. One of the most popular quaternary ammonium compounds of theorganophilic clay industry is dimethyl dihydrogenated tallow ammoniumchloride (M₂HT₂N⁺Cl⁻). The oil-solubility of this compound is enhancedby its almost complete hydrocarbon structure and its two long-chainalkyl groups. Further, its two methyl groups do not sterically interferewith close packing of the ammonium cation to the clay surface.

The dimethyl dihydrogenated tallow ammonium chloride surfactant,however, cannot be efficiently activated at relatively low temperatures.Improved cationic surfactants have been developed in which the ammoniumcompounds have greater numbers of alkyl groups. One such surfactantincludes a benzyl group that greatly enhances the performance oforganophilic clays at cold temperatures near 45° F.

Unfortunately, the quaternary ammonium compounds described above undergominimal aerobic biodegradation and are toxic and thus may harm theenvironment. Over time, those compounds may accumulate and become toxicto life, thereby posing a much greater risk to the environment. Due toenvironmental regulations, costly procedures often must be followed todispose of drilling fluids containing organophilic clays treated withsuch compounds, ensuring that they do not contact the marine environmentand groundwater. Thus, it is desirable to develop a biodegradablecationic surfactant for use in the formation of an organophilic clayadditive for a drilling fluid.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Some teachings and advantages found in the present application aresummarized briefly below. However, note that the present application maydisclose multiple embodiments, and not all of the statements in thisSummary section necessarily relate to all of those embodiments.Moreover, none of these statements limit the claims in any way.

According to embodiments, drilling fluids comprise an organophilic claytreated with a quaternary ammonium surfactant having an amide linkage.The quaternary ammonium surfactant may comprise a compound generallyrepresented by the following formula:

where M⁻ is an anion such as a chloride, methyl sulfate, bromide,acetate, or iodide ion; R₁ is an alkyl group such as a saturatedhydrocarbon with 10 or more carbons; R₂, R₃, and R₄ are the same ordifferent alkyl groups such as a methyl, ethyl, or benzyl group, and xis greater than or equal to 1. The organophilic clay treated in thismanner is substantially biodegradable.

In additional embodiments, drilling fluids comprise: an oil-based fluid;an organophilic clay treated with a quaternary ammonium surfactanthaving an amide linkage; and a weighting agent.

In still more embodiments, drilling fluids comprise: an invert emulsion;an organophilic clay treated with a quaternary ammonium surfactanthaving an amide linkage; an emulsifier; and a weighting agent.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates the drilling of a wellbore using the drilling fluiddescribed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Drilling fluids may include an organophilic clay that has been treatedwith a quaternary ammonium surfactant having an amide linkage. This typeof cationic surfactant is substantially biodegradable, meaning that itis capable of being decomposed by natural biological processes. Inparticular, it undergoes aerobic biodegradation, which is the breakdownof organic chemicals by microorganisms when oxygen is present. In thisprocess, aerobic bacteria use oxygen as an electron acceptor and breakdown organic chemicals into smaller organic compounds, often producingcarbon dioxide and water as the final product. Therefore, organophilicclays treated with the biodegradable cationic surfactant may be used indrilling fluids for drilling a wellbore without being concerned that thesurfactant could accumulate in the environment. As such, the surfactantusually never reaches toxic levels that could harm the surroundingenvironment and the life supported by that environment. Not only doesthe use of a biodegradable surfactant benefit the environment, it alsoalleviates the need to expend energy to clean-up non-biodegradable claysand thus prevent them from contaminating the environment.

The drilling fluids typically comprise an oil-based fluid such as dieseloil, mineral oil, invert emulsions containing water droplets dispersedin oil, synthetic olefins, esters, or combinations thereof. The watercontained in such invert emulsions may comprise fresh water or saltwater such as brine or sea water. An example of a suitable brine iscalcium chloride brine. The oil-to-water volumetric ratio in the invertemulsions may be in a range of from about 95:5 to about 50:50, oralternatively from about 90:10 to about 70:30. Examples of raw materialsused in organophilic clay (also known as organoclay) manufacturinginclude but are not limited to bentonite such as sodium bentonite,attapulgite, hectorite, and combinations thereof. The amount oforganophilic clay in the drilling fluid may be in a range of from about2 pounds/barrel (lbs/bbl) to about 20 lbs/bbl.

Any quaternary ammonium surfactant having an amide linkage that issuitable for displacing the cations of the organophilic clay may beemployed to treat the clay. The amount of surfactant relative to theclay may vary depending on the type of clay being used and the methodsof processing. In embodiments, a weight ratio of the quaternary ammoniumsurfactant to organophilic clay (e.g., sodium bentonite) may be in arange of from about 1:1 to about 1:2, alternatively from about 9:10 toabout 2:3, or alternatively from about 3:4 to about 17:20. Inembodiments, quaternary ammonium surfactants for treating theorganophilic clays may be generally represented by the followingformula:

where M⁻ is an anion; R₁ is an alkyl group; R₂, R₃, and R₄ are the sameor different alkyl groups, and x is greater than or equal to 1. Inembodiments, M⁻ is a chloride, methyl sulfate, bromide, acetate, oriodide ion, R₁ is a saturated hydrocarbon having 10 or more carbonatoms, and R₂, R₃, and R₄ are methyl groups, ethyl groups, benzylgroups, or combinations thereof. When one of R₂, R₃, or R₄ is a benzylgroup, the biodegradability of the surfactant is somewhat reduced butstill significant while the performance of the organophilic clayincreases dramatically.

Examples of such quaternary ammonium surfactants include compoundsgenerally represented by the following formula:

where R is an alkyl group and X⁻ is an anion. In an embodiment, R is asaturated alkyl group comprising at least 10 carbon atoms and X⁻ is achloride, iodide, bromide, acetate, or methyl sulfate ion. As shown,such compounds contain a stearic alkyl group connected through the amidelinkage and two methyl groups and a benzyl group on the ammonium ion. Aquaternary ammonium surfactant of this type and having a C₁₈ saturatedalkyl group substituted for R and a chloride ion substituted for X⁻ iscommercially available from the Stepan Co. under the tradename ofAMMONYX SDBC surfactant. Examples of additional quaternary ammoniumsurfactants may be generally represented by the following formula:

where R is an alkyl group and X⁻ is an anion. In an embodiment, R is asaturated alkyl group comprising at least 10 carbon atoms and X⁻ is achloride, iodide, bromide, acetate, or methyl sulfate ion. A quaternaryammonium surfactant of this type and having a C₁₈ saturated alkyl groupsubstituted for R and a chloride ion substituted for X⁻ is commerciallyavailable from the Stepan Co. under the tradename of AGENT X2506-13surfactant.

The drilling fluids may further include additional additives as deemedappropriate by one skilled in the art. Examples of such additivesinclude but are not limited to an emulsifier, a filtration controlagent, a weighting agent, calcium hydroxide (i.e., lime), orcombinations thereof. In an embodiment, all of the components in thedrilling fluid may be environmentally safe to allow them to be used inenvironmentally sensitive regions. In this case, all of the surfactantscontained in the drilling fluid are typically biodegradable, includingthe emulsifiers.

The drilling fluids described above may be prepared by combining theorganophilic clay, which has been pre-treated with the quaternaryammonium surfactant, with the other components, such as the oil-basedfluid, using techniques known in the art. In one embodiment, thedrilling fluids may be prepared at an off-site location away from thewellbore drilling site. In this case, they are shipped to the wellboredrilling site where they may be used immediately or stored until theiruse is desired. In another embodiment, the surfactant-treatedorganophilic clay may be separately stored at an on-site location nearthe wellbore drilling site, allowing it to be added to a drilling fluidas needed. The presence of the organophilic clay in a drilling fluidincreases its viscosity such that it is pumpable and less likely to belost to a subterranean formation as it is circulated through a wellborethat penetrates the formation. The clay also improves the ability of thedrilling fluid to suspend solids such as drill cuttings and weightingagents therein. The performance of the clay in the drilling fluid mayvary depending on the system in which it is placed, i.e., the types ofthe other components in the fluid, such as the surfactants.

The clay may be treated with the quaternary ammonium surfactant havingan amide linkage by first placing the clay in water to hydrate the clay.The resulting slurry may then be filtered through a sieve to removeimpurities, followed by passing it through an ion exchange column toremove divalent cations. The slurry may then be heated and stirred whilethe quaternary ammonium surfactant is added thereto. It may be heated ata temperature in the range of from about 140° F. to about 155° F. for aperiod of time effective to react the surfactant with the organophilicclay. Thereafter, the clay treated with the surfactant may be dried byfiltering it and heating the resulting filter cake at a temperature in arange of from about 140° F. to about 150° F. for a period of timeeffective to dry the filter cake. The dried organophilic clay may thenbe ground to ensure that it can be easily dispersed in fluid, followedby filtering it through a sieve to generate a consistent particle size.

The organophilic clay treated with the quaternary ammonium surfactanthaving an amide linkage is typically insoluble in water and notcompletely soluble in oil; however, it interacts more with oil thanwould a clay that has not been treated with the surfactant. As such, itis more compatible with oil-based drilling fluids. The organophilic clayalso may have a Loss of Organic mass by Ignition (LOI) in a range offrom about 30% to about 50% by weight, or alternatively in a range offrom about 35% to about 45%. The LOI indicates the amount of organicmatter, i.e., surfactant, present in the organophilic clay. Withoutintending to be limited by theory, it is believed that treating theorganophilic clay with a quaternary ammonium surfactant having an amidelinkage as opposed to an ester linkage (a conventional treatment method)makes the clay more hydrophobic. As a result, the clay is less likely toattract water that could undesirably limit its ability to viscosify thedrilling fluid and suspend solids in the fluid.

FIG. 1 depicts a drill rig 40 for drilling a well bore 44 thatpenetrates the earth 42 using the drilling fluid containing thesurfactant-treated organophilic clay. A drill bit 50 may be mounted onthe end of a drill string 52 comprising several sections of drill pipe.The well bore 44 may be drilled by using a rotary drive at the surfaceto rotate drill string 52 and to apply torque and force to urge drillbit 50 to extend through well bore 44. The drilling fluid may bedisplaced through drill string 52 using one or more pumps 54. Thedrilling fluid may be circulated past drill bit 50 and back to thesurface as indicated by arrows 46, thereby removing drill cuttings fromthe well bore (i.e., material such as rock generated by the drilling).In an embodiment, the drilling fluid may be employed for generaldrilling of boreholes in subterranean formations, particularly throughnon-producing zones. In another embodiment, the drilling fluid may serveas a so-called “drill-in” fluid designed for drilling through producingzones (i.e., zones of a subterranean formation bearing hydrocarbons).

EXAMPLES

The invention having been generally described, the following example isgiven as a particular embodiment of the invention and to demonstrate thepractice and advantages thereof. It is understood that the example isgiven by way of illustration and is not intended to limit thespecification or the claims to follow in any manner.

Wyoming sodium bentonite was hydrated in water and then filtered twicethrough a 400-mesh sieve to remove impurities. The resulting slurry waspassed through an ion exchange column to remove divalent cations. Analiquot of slurry was dried, and the concentration of dry bentonite wasfound to be 2.92% by weight of the aliquot. One kilogram of the slurryalso was heated to 140-155° F. while stirring. Then 22.6 grams ofAMMONYX SDBC surfactant were added to the heated slurry over a period ofapproximately 5 minutes, followed by stirring the mixture an additional30 minutes at 150° F. The slurry was thereafter filtered through Whatman50 paper placed within a Buchner funnel to remove water. A filter cakewas removed from the filter paper and dried for 16 hours at 140-150° F.,thereby forming a biodegradable organophilic clay in accordance with anembodiment. The dried organophilic clay was ground in a hammermill andthen sieved through a 100-mesh screen. The moisture content and LOI ofthe organophilic clay were determined to be 1.5% and 37.0% by weight ofthe organophilic clay, respectively.

As shown in Table 1 below, the ground organophilic clay was then used toprepare a 350.5 mL drilling fluid sample (sample B). In addition to theorganophilic clay, sample B contained XP-07 hydrocarbon (approximately aC₁₂-C₁₆ linear paraffin), water, 11.6 pound (lb)/gallon (gal) calciumchloride brine, a co-emulsifier, a BDF-364 emulsifier, calcium hydroxide(lime), BAROID weighting agent (barium sulfate) commercially availablefrom Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. The components in sample B werefirst mixed with a MULTIMIXER mixer commercially available form SterlingMulti-Products Inc. of Prophetstown, Ill. and then with a SILVERSONmixer commercially available from Silverson Machines Limited of theUnited Kingdom. Sample B was further hot rolled for 16 hours at 150° F.The amounts of the components in the drilling fluid sample B are shownin Table 1.

A 350.5 mL control sample (sample A) was also prepared that containedall of the same components except that the biodegradable organophilicclay was replaced with GELTONE II organophilic clay, which iscommercially available from Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. GELTONE IIclay is not sufficiently biodegradable to be used in some areas butexhibits good properties. The components in the control sample A werefirst mixed with the MULTIMIXER mixer and then with a SILVERSON mixer.The control sample A was further hot rolled for 16 hours at 150° F.Table 1 also illustrates the amounts of the components in control sampleA.

The drilling fluid sample B and the control sample A were then tested todetermine the plastic viscosity in centipoise (cp), the yield point, the10-second gel strength, the 10-minute gel strength, and the Fann 35Aviscometer dial readings of those samples. The tests were performed inaccordance with American Petroleum Institute Recommended Practice 13B-2,3^(rd) Edition, February 1998. The results of the tests are presented inTable 1.

TABLE 1 Sample A (control) B XP-07, barrel (bbL) 0.550 0.550 Water, bbl0.120 0.120 Brine, bbl 0.148 0.148 Co-emulsifier, lb 3 3 BDF-364, lb 2 2Lime, lb 2 2 BAROID, lb 228 228 Organophilic clay, lb 7.0 10.5Properties of A Properties of B Temperature, ° F. 50 85 120 150 50 85120 150 Plastic Viscosity, cp 47 25 18 15 66 40 29 23 Yield Point,lb/100 40 15 11 10 32 17 12 9 ft² 10-Sec Gel 15 6 5 5 16 6 5 4 Strength,lb/100 ft² 10-Min Gel 15 7 6 5 47 18 8 6 Strength, lb/100 ft² Fann 35 Adial readings 600 rpm 134 65 47 40 164 97 70 55 300 rpm 87 40 29 25 9857 41 32 200 rpm 68 29 22 20 73 43 31 24 100 rpm 47 19 15 14 46 27 19 15 6 rpm 17 7 6 6 17 7 5 4  3 rpm 15 6 5 5 16 6 4 3

As illustrated in Table 1, the properties of the drilling fluidcontaining the biodegradable organophilic clay described herein werecomparable to those of the drilling fluid containing GELTONE IIorganophilic clay. It is noted that a larger quantity of thebiodegradable clay than of the control clay was used to obtain similarproperties. In particular, the yield point, which measures the carryingcapacity, is very similar for both types of drilling fluids and varieslittle over a wide temperature range.

While embodiments of the invention have been shown and described,modifications thereof can be made by one skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the spirit and teachings of the invention. Theembodiments described herein are exemplary only, and are not intended tobe limiting. Many variations and modifications of the inventiondisclosed herein are possible and are within the scope of the invention.

Accordingly, the scope of protection is not limited by the descriptionset out above but is only limited by the claims which follow, that scopeincluding all equivalents of the subject matter of the claims. Each andevery claim is incorporated into the specification as an embodiment.Thus, the claims are a further description and are an addition to theembodiments of the present invention. The discussion of a referenceherein is not an admission that it is prior art, especially anyreference that may have a publication date after the priority date ofthis application. The disclosures of all patents, patent applications,and publications cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference, tothe extent that they provide exemplary, procedural, or other detailssupplementary to those set forth herein.

1. A drilling fluid comprising an organophilic clay treated with aquaternary ammonium surfactant that comprises a compound generallyrepresented by the following formula:

wherein M⁻ is an anion, R₁ is an alkyl group, R₂ is a methyl, ethyl, orbenzyl group, R₃ is a methyl, ethyl, or benzyl group, R₄ is a methyl,ethyl, or benzyl group, and x is greater than or equal to
 1. 2. Thedrilling fluid of claim 1, wherein the organophilic clay issubstantially biodegradable.
 3. The drilling fluid of claim 1, wherein aweight ratio of the quaternary ammonium surfactant to the organophilicclay is in a range of from about 1:1 to about 1:2.
 4. The drilling fluidof claim 1, wherein a weight ratio of the quaternary ammonium surfactantto the organophilic clay is in a range of from about 9:10 to about 2:3.5. The drilling fluid of claim 1, wherein a weight ratio of thequaternary ammonium surfactant to the organophilic clay is in a range offrom about 3:4 to about 17:20.
 6. The drilling fluid of claim 1, furthercomprising at least one selected from the group consisting of: anaqueous salt solution, fresh water, diesel oil, mineral oil, an invertemulsion, a synthetic olefin, an ester, an emulsifier, a filtrationcontrol agent, a weighting agent, a paraffin, calcium hydroxide, and anycombination thereof.
 7. The drilling fluid of claim 1, wherein theorganophilic clay comprises at least one organophilic clay selected fromthe group consisting of: bentonite, hectorite, and any combinationthereof.
 8. The drilling fluid of claim 1, wherein the organophilic clayhas a loss of organic mass by ignition in a range of from about 30% toabout 50%.
 9. The drilling fluid of claim 1, wherein the drilling fluidresides in a subterranean well.
 10. The drilling fluid of claim 1,wherein the drilling fluid further comprises a nonaqueous phase.
 11. Thedrilling fluid of claim 1, wherein the drilling fluid further comprisesan oil-based fluid and a weighting agent.
 12. The drilling fluid ofclaim 1, wherein the drilling fluid further comprises an invertemulsion, an emulsifier, and a weighting agent.
 13. A drilling fluidcomprising an organophilic clay treated with a quaternary ammoniumsurfactant that comprises a compound generally represented by thefollowing formula:

wherein R is an alkyl group and X⁻ is an anion.
 14. The drilling fluidof claim 13, wherein the R is a saturated alkyl group comprising atleast 10 carbon atoms.
 15. The drilling fluid of claim 13, wherein theX⁻ comprises chloride, iodide, bromide, acetate, or methyl sulfate. 16.The drilling fluid of claim 13, wherein the organophilic clay issubstantially biodegradable.
 17. The drilling fluid of claim 13, whereina weight ratio of the quaternary ammonium surfactant to the organophilicclay is in a range of from about 1:1 to about 1:2.
 18. The drillingfluid of claim 13, wherein a weight ratio of the quaternary ammoniumsurfactant to the organophilic clay is in a range of from about 9:10 toabout 2:3.
 19. The drilling fluid of claim 13, wherein a weight ratio ofthe quaternary ammonium surfactant to the organophilic clay is in arange of from about 3:4 to about 17:20.
 20. The drilling fluid of claim13, wherein the organophilic clay comprises at least one organophilicclay selected from the group consisting of: bentonite, hectorite, andany combination thereof.